China: A Conservative Tradition

By Christopher Tadgell

# 8 in A History of Architecture

$5.00

While its architectural tradition is one of the world’s longest, few Chinese buildings are very old.

But the tradition is a conservative one and the forms of building changed little over many centuries. The Chinese tradition begins in the walled towns centred on granaries built by the first dynasty, the Shang, in the 16th century BC. And the idea of the walled enclosure dominates the country’s architectural history at every scale – from the typical town house to the Great Wall.

Providing a philosophical basis are the contrasting schools of thought derived from the teaching of, on the one hand, Confucius (Kong Fuzi) and, on the other, Laozi. The first stresses authority, propriety and public service. The second promotes a self-centred passivity through the concept of the dao, the hidden power and ordering principle of nature. The authority of the axis over the plan of temple, town, palace and town house is essentially Confucian, while the informality of country and suburban villas set in their gardens is Daoist in its desire for harmony with nature.

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